Employability Skills Required by Private Saudi Employers and the Role of Higher Education System in Delivering Them: A Field Study

Abstract

Private sector organisations face increasing challenges of competing in a world market and rapid technological advancements. This in turn has necessitated fundamental changes in behaviour and orientation towards workforce and employability skills for current or future employment needs. This paper aims to investigate the most needed employability skills by the Saudi private sector and how successful are the higher educational establishments in delivering graduates with skills that match what the market is asking for? The study finds that 77.8% of the employers, surveyed in our sample, express their doubt about the ability of the higher education system in providing graduates with the appropriate employability skills. The study also concludes that there are certain skills highly in demand by the Saudi employers. Top of the list comes loyalty and hard working, excellent time keeping and commitment, ability to work in a team, English language competence, and computer literacy. Although, employers agreed on the importance of previous experience and writing skills but it comes at the bottom of their priority ladder for employability skills.